Observation of team behavior: intercultural and interpersonal communication

The most recent inter-cultural scenario i experienced was actually back when i was in an overseas military exercise during my active service term. Just a little over one year ago, i was spending the majority of my January in sunny New Zealand, from the 5th to the 24th. As the exercise was bilateral with the New Zealand Army, at the end of the whole exercise, we were all brought together to celebrate the end of the exchange at a barbeque dinner. So soldiers from both armies were brought together and allowed to mingle and chat, all formalities aside.

While eating, i started to chat with a NZ soldier and got to know more about him. What was interesting is that i found out that he was only 19, to me that was quite a shock because the NZ army is a professional one, and at 19 he was willing to commit himself to a life in the military. When i explained to him that although i was in the army, it was more of a 'no choice' situation and that after my term i would be going back to studying. His reaction to that was laughable, he gave an astonished look and said "bummer eh?", he then went on to tell me that he's far away from home, having led an independent life since 16. He said that studying and getting to university was something not on his mind at all. When i told him about how our culture was to study hard and get a degree to support our parents, he told me their's was to get out of their parents home as soon as possible and live independantly.

I can't imagine living independantly at this moment to be honest, i don't think that most of us Singaporeans are brought up in such a way, our asian culture is more family centered and i suppose it's raises eyebrows when told to people outside Asia, perhaps exculding Australia and New Zealand.

Thinking back on it, having learnt something about him and his way of life was extremely interesting, knowing about how different we all lead our lives based on culture was very intriguing. We may be of the same age but how we have seen the world is vastly different! It also brings to mind the ignorance we hold when communicating with someone of a different culture, i could have said something to offend and still be none the wiser! I feel that communication was largely effective because we were both polite and considerate to listen to each other talk about their own culture, the questions we exchanged helped to sustain the conversation and build interest, which led to such a meaningful exchangeg!

Communication and teamwork: what they are to me?

Thanks to static.pyzam.com/img/funnypics/6...work.jpg for the pictures.

This picture really brings out the crux of the word teamwork. Share Victory, Share Defeat. Work as a team and strive together as a team!

Reflecting back on this weeks tutorial on communication and teamwork was really an eye-opener to me. After working on team based projects since secondary school(some successful and some turned out to be remarkable failures), i sort of had a vague grasp of what was needed and expected to function in a team. Never was there, though, any kind of pointers that explained what was successful and effective communication and teamwork, so this week's lesson, i must admit, was enlightening and very useful.

I believe that communication and teamwork are going to be the most important assets that we will need as we graduate from engineering. As the lecturers often point out, no engineer flies solo. These assets are important for me in that not only can i bring a new set of skills to the table when it comes to contributing to teamwork, moreover i can do it in a effective way.



The most recent project i did was actually last semester for a business module i took as a breadth. Our assignment was to help the less fortunate in a video project in teams of five, and on hindsight, i would admit that the group had no teamwork at all. Basically is was more of a group of five individuals doing to each their own, and not only that, communication was sparse( limited to necessary emails to inform each other on updates). The project culminated to a point where i was doing the video editing all alone due to a breakdown in communication, and finally when everything was completed, instead of exchanging hi fives and cheers, back-biting ensued. Emails laced with sarcasm and false politeness exchanged between my members, each complaining about the role(or lack thereof) they did.

Not only was that a horrible experience, it showed me the perils of lack of communication and teamwork in a group, and i would hope that such an experience never repeat itself. Hence i believe that the lessons on communication and teamwork are very important to me so that such a dismal situation can be averted.

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